


An Ounce Of Sense

by Lady_Of_Paper_7



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Actual Open Communication, Alternate Plotline, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Budding Love, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Eventual Loki/Tony Stark, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Forming of friendship, FrostIron - Freeform, Gentle Kissing, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hugging, Illusions, Infinity War, IronFrost - Freeform, M/M, Magic, Making Out, Mentioned Peter Parker, Minor Violence, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Recovery, Revenge, Sweet, Tenderness, soft, tony x loki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2020-10-17 07:55:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20617586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Of_Paper_7/pseuds/Lady_Of_Paper_7
Summary: Thanos smiled down at him, a ghastly sight, and Loki gritted his teeth. He did not break eye contact as the titan reached downwards to take the tesseract. His fingers closed around the blue light, almost brushing against Loki’s - and the god had to fight the urge to gag at the mere thought. Instead, he smiled up at the titan, hard and jagged-edged and twisted his wrist, removing the illusion.The moment, Thanos saw Loki’s expression change, he dropped his gaze to their hands and the thing he had taken to be the tesseract._______An alternate course of events of "Infinity Wars"s opening scene.





	1. Over

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own either characters, people or backstories. The only thing that I did was come up with semi-creative plots and ideas to put (already established and beloved) characters in and write them down, most of the time to come up with happy endings.

“Alright stop!”

Beneath the flickering lights, the blood on Thor’s lips and chin looked purple rather than red. Loki averted his eyes, releasing the breath he’d sucked in when Thanos had first grabbed his brother and pressed the gauntlet to his head.

He did not look at Thanos or his minions as he reached into the space between his hip and cape which - would he have been anyone else but himself – should have contained nothing but air. His gaze flicked towards his brother, only long enough to see the disappointment in his eye.

He closed his own for a moment, only long enough to inhale once and gather himself before he reached just a breath further and closed his fingers around the same blue trinket that had changed his life the minute, he had first touched it.

A ghostly blue light seeped from its cool surface into the semi-darkness the ship had fallen into when Thanos’ had rammed it. It pulsated weakly as he drew it out and held it up for the whole room to see.

He heard his brother’s voice, harsh and resigned but he did not allow his own face to betray any emotion as he stepped towards Thanos, hand raised up high to offer him his prize. His strides were long and even, his back straight and his head held high although just looking at Thanos made the god want to teleport to the other end of the galaxy and curl up in a ball, made his chest feel tight and his heart beat so fast, it was a miracle it did not break through his ribs and out.

Thanos smiled down at him, a ghastly sight, and Loki gritted his teeth. He did not break eye contact as the titan reached downwards to take the tesseract. His fingers closed around the blue light, almost brushing against Loki’s - and the god had to fight the urge to gag at the mere thought. Instead, _he_ smiled up at the titan, hard and jagged-edged and twisted his wrist, removing the illusion.

The moment, Thanos saw Loki’s expression change, he dropped his gaze to their hands and the thing he had taken to be the tesseract.

His eyes widened but he did not have enough time to raise the cry that was building in the back of his throat. Bright, blue light and coldness, colder than anything one was able to imagine erupted from his grip and a storm, made of both light and shadow, wind and ice engulfed the whole room. Loki felt his own body grow cool and he was sure his skin and eyes changed but he forced himself to ignore it; right now, the only thing that mattered was that the whole room was covered.

“I will show you”, he gritted out between bared teeth, “I will show you disgusting, hypocritical beast”

He tipped back his head to look right into Thanos’ eyes as his face and body froze. The whole room had grown deathly quiet by the time Loki replaced the casket of eternal winter, stepped up to Thanos, got onto the tips of his toes and hissed into his ear; “Look around you, look, I would hate for you to miss this”

He pulled back and turned to the henchman closest to his brother first. The air stirred almost imperceptibly as he took a slim golden dagger from it and spun it between his fingers, its blade so thin it seemed to cut through the darkness itself. Loki turned his head and looked straight into Thanos’ eyes as he slit the minion’s throat, one swift, crimson slash across his neck.

The frozen body did not hit the ground, that would come soon enough, and Loki turned to the next henchman. And the next, the next and the next after that until he was back in front of the creature that had taken so much from him; “I won”, he snarled as he raised his blade one last time.

The gold was barely visible beneath the blood that dripped from its blade, down it’s hilt and Loki’s fingers, three different colours all mingling into one trail leading down his wrist; “_I. Won._”, he held Thanos’ gaze as the tip of his dagger edged closer and closer towards Thanos’ eye; “and no one, _no one_ will ever know about you or your sick little plans”

“Are you alright?”, Loki asked in a hoarse voice as he crouched down in front of his brother.

Thor, Heimdall and the Hulk, too had been frozen when Loki had used the casket. He had not dared to take any risk in trying to stir its energy away from his companions and towards Thanos’.

“I’m sorry”, his voice broke as he willed the thin layer of ice that enclosed the bodies around him to thaw.

“_I’m sorry_”, his voice broke as half of them collapsed with sickening sounds.

Still on his knees, he did not dare touch Thor yet, but dropped his hands into his own lap and his head bowed forward, so his hair hung into his face. His whole body started shaking and every breath he took sounded harsher while bringing in less oxygen.

“Stop apologizing”, his brother finally got out, shaking his head in an attempt to shake off the coolness as if he were a dog shaking water from its pelt.

It didn’t quite work but a moment later, he had regained enough control over his muscles to lift up his arms and clumsily wrap both of them around his little brother, “Almost two thousand years without it and now you start saying sorry without reason”

Loki let himself be pulled forward, but he could not bring himself to return the embrace, he felt hot and cold all over and he very much doubted whether he would manage to utter a single word.

“Let it go”, said Thor in a much softer voice than Loki had thought him capable of, “For once in your life, stop fighting it and let go”

He ignored everything around them, Heimdall adjusting his sword-belt and leaving the room to search the rest of the ship for survivors and the Hulk collapsing into an enormous green heap which rapidly lost both size and colour until a very confused and shaken Bruce Banner crouched amidst the bodies of Thanos’ fallen. Instead, Thor, very careful, started rocking Loki back and forth, not for a second loosening his hold on him while the shaking grew worse until his little brother lost it completely.

It started with a single gasp which turned into a sob halfway, and it was in good company before long. Thor had not seen Loki cry in over a thousand years – partly because Loki had grown better and better at hiding his feelings as time paused but also because, he had to admit it, he had not paid near as much attention to his little brother as he should have. Except that one time.

“It’s over, Loki”, he now told the younger god over and over again as he held him fast and rubbed his back, “they’re gone, you did it”

The air tasted of blood and sweat, iron and salt mingling on Thor’s tongue in the semi-darkness. From where he was sitting, Thanos’ corpse looked like a mountain, half purple flesh, oozing crimson like a wide, lazy river, half metal turning form gold to red.

All the while, Loki said nothing at all, the only sounds coming from him heart breaking sobs and occasional hiccups, but eventually even they stopped and he grew quiet, no longer shaking and the tension seeping from his muscles. When his head sank against his brother’s shoulder, Thor sat still for another couple of minutes until he clambered back to his feet and carefully lifted Loki up and over his shoulder.

“We go back and search for the others”, he told Bruce with a set face, “I know where we have to go next”


	2. “By the norns, you’re pretty”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Thor was being honest with himself, he had to admit that he had hoped that everything would be solved and alright once they’d reached Midgard. He had not expected the Avengers to have split up while he had been gone for example and he had most definitely not expected Tony Stark and the captain to no longer be on speaking terms.

Everything was well; Thanos and his minions were dead, most of the aesir still alive and well enough to keep on traveling. With the vastness of space around and a clear destination in front of them, their journey felt right, like they were going somewhere - like they were going where they needed to be and where on a mission to make everything right again, to move on after everything had been solved. It was when they reached Midgard that they had to start accepting that it wouldn’t be so simple.

For one, Loki had, after he’d passed out in Thor’s arms, not woken up again. That in of itself wasn’t necessarily worrying; it is not that unusual for mages to pass out when they are stressed and not wake up until they have recovered returned to their full powers, but these usually were deep, peaceful slumbers. Loki however was tossing and turning amidst his sheets and deep lines had etched into his forehead that never vanished. He was slipping from feverish bursts to shivering and back again, one moment ice-cold to the touch the next burning up and drenched in cold sweat.

Thor tried to sit with him as often as he could but acting as both captain and king in this time kept him occupied most of the time, so Bruce took over. No one was particularly happy about this arrangement, but it was the best there was for the moment.

If Thor was being honest with himself, he had to admit that he had hoped that everything would be solved and alright once they’d reached Midgard. He had not expected the Avengers to have split up while he had been gone for example and he had most definitely not expected Tony Stark and the captain to no longer be on speaking terms.

At least Stark did not disappoint him and immediately called in a room full of politicians, military and countless other important people to figure out what to do with a spacecraft full of gods and goddesses and where to settle them down for the moment.

Most importantly, he made sure Loki was relocated from the ship to his Malibu villa and re-examined by his personal physicians.

Thor had been pleasantly surprised about the last turn of events but chose not to question it and rather make sure that Loki was well-cared for while he, Valkyrie and Heimdall turned to the rather pressing question of Asgard’s future. They could not just settle down on Midgard, that much was obvious and all over the galaxy, there were planets that were either completely uninhabited or so thinly populated, that the aesir could take up residence alongside the people there. Finding one that fit all their needs and doing so quickly was the slightly harder part.

To be fair, Tony Stark was also rather glad that Thor’s number one concern was making sure his brother was brought to a safe place and taken care of and decided to ask questions later. If someone had directly asked him, why he was giving a probably insane demigod shelter – at his own place nevertheless – he would have been hard-pressed to come up with an explanation that made some degree of sense to anyone that had not been living in the engineer’s head during the last couple of years.

Truth be told, if Thor had not started his recollection of their journey with the fact that Loki had single-handedly neutralised Thanos and his henchmen, he would not have jumped at the idea of having the same demigod who had almost killed him during their first meeting anywhere near his home and lab. But he had and just because Loki had been the one to get rid of Thanos and the threat he posed, Tony Stark felt that making sure he came back around was the least he could do.

The first night after the ship had landed and after the first solutions had been improvised - the aesir had been put up for the night and Loki moved and checked on by a horde of doctors (they had not really known what to do with Loki after they’d moved him to one of the spare bedrooms in Tony’s house. Apart from a handful of bruises, which had healed and vanished as the god slept – there seemed to be nothing physically wrong with him. He was exhausted, that much was obvious but apart from that, he looked fine, his vital signs seemed fine, albeit weak so they simply let him sleep and give him fluids.) - had been the first night in years Tony Stark had been able to sleep.

The next morning, he had cancelled all plans and meetings for the near future, grabbed his tablet and taken up residence in the room the god had been moved to.

“I’ll keep you posted if anything happens”, he’d told Thor in an attempt to avoid his questions before the god had had the chance to say a word when he checked onto his brother himself later that day, and it had worked. Well, Thor had gathered him up in a bone-crashing hug and probably declared him ambassador or something. Tony had been too busy trying to catch his breath to actually catch the meaning of his words.

That was how Tony Stark ended up sitting with the god of fire and mischief for three days straight, watching over him as he slept. It was strangely calming, and he felt a weight, which he had forgotten he’d been carrying around with himself ever since he’d come to in Afghanistan, slowly lift from his shoulders as he watched the lines on the monitors Loki had been hooked up to.

That went on until one afternoon, when Loki’s eyes fluttered open and he gazed up at the ceiling of the room unseeingly. Had it not been for the sudden increase of beeping sounds, Tony would not have noticed the change at once but now, he carefully placed his notebook on the floor next to the sofa he’d been sitting on and got to his feet.

“Hi”, his voice sounded hoarse, even to his own ears but he slowly advanced on the bed and its occupant, close enough so the god should be able to see him from where he was laying if he turned his head. Which he did.

The whole room started spinning behind Loki’s eyes and he resumed to lie as still as he could, one half of his face pressed against the sheets and pillows. His eyes looked strangely unfocused as he gazed at the man in front of him.

“How you feeling?”, he asked after a couple of minutes during which Loki did nothing but blink at him. He wasn’t even completely sure that the god could actually see him.

“Loki?”, Tony asked when he didn’t get an answer, “are you hurt?”, he asked very slowly when he felt vaguely sure that the god was listening to him. His eyes had slipped shut again and he’d almost slipped away again himself by the time the engineer stepped closer.

“Hey, focus”, he almost reached out to place one hand on the god’s shoulder but thought better of it, “I’m sorry but I need to know-“

“Hm?”, Loki’s forced his eyes open for a moment and he starred up at Tony as if he could not quite believe he was there.

“I need to know whether you’re still hurt or need anything”, the engineer asked softly.

“No”, Loki’s voice came out rough and thin and his eyes didn’t quite manage to focus on Tony, “I’m fine”

“You’re sure about that?”, Tony asked before the thought that he should probably not do that finished forming in his head.

The god looked rather the worse for wear; his skin was so pale, it almost looked grey – which only made the dark purple rings beneath his eyes stand out more – and looked like it was pulled too tight over his bones. His lips looked dry and parched. He blinked again.

“Not entirely”, Loki whispered, forcing his eyes open again and looked more closely at the man in front of him;

“_By the norns, you’re pretty_”, the words passed Loki’s lips in a sigh he did not feel on his lips. Later, he would not even remember uttering it – or rather, he could not imagine himself doing it, not until much, much later.

It did not happen often that Tony Stark found himself at a loss for words. He was also fairly sure, Loki had not meant to say the last bit out loud as he went of with: “Don’t I know you?”, before Tony had managed to fully come to terms with the last statement.

“Yeah”, Tony laughed despite himself, “I’m the guy you threw out of that window when you tried to take over the world couple of years back”

He watched as Loki furrowed his brows and set up straighter. Recollection crossed his features and his eyes opened wider; “oh”

“Yeah, don’t worry about that now, I’m over it”

“Anthony Stark, was it not?”, his voice still sounded weak but the colour started returning to his cheeks.

“Wouldn’t have expected you to remember”; Tony said, honestly surprised.

He did not quite catch the god’s response, only something that vaguely sounded like “one of the few I managed to save”

“I’m sorry?”

“Why would you choose to sit with me then?”, the god made as if he was repeating himself, Tony didn’t buy it, “_you didn’t even bind my hands_”, the god added after a moment, eyes going wide in shock as he tried to lift up his hands to rub his eyes and found that he could.

“Thor said you’re one of the good guys now”, Tony tried to shrug as nonchalantly as he could, “but before we go into that; is there anything you need right now? Water? Food? Painkillers?”

“Water would be much appreciated”, Loki allowed his eyes to slip shut for a moment, while Tony filled a see-through plastic cup that already held a white straw with water from a carafe on the nightstand next to the bed.

“Can you sit up?”, he asked as he stepped back up to the bed and offered the cup to the god, “you don’t have to”, he added when he saw the look in the god’s eyes and held the glass beneath his chin, straw close to his lips.

“Thank you”, Loki whispered when he was done, and the engineer moved away from him again.

“No problem”

“You have not answered my question”, the god finally dared to point out, “you surely have better things to do than watch over me – and you don’t strike me as the humanitarian kind either – so why are you here with me?”

“Your brother”, Tony went on after a beat when he did not get a negative reaction to that, “told us that you killed Thanos and his posy”

“How do you know of Thanos?”; Loki asked, suddenly guarded and tense.

“Saw him”, Tony swallowed around the lump that was forming in his throat and looked at the floor between them rather than the god’s face as he went on, “saw him when I flew up there”

“I did not know”, Loki said in a softer tone of voice at which Tony’s head snapped up.

“Few people do”, he tried to shrug again but it looked even less convincing than the last time, “could have done without that”, he added with a bitter smile.

“I can imagine”, Loki whispered and met Tony’s gaze when he looked up.

“And I guess”, Tony went on, gesturing helplessly and finally settling for simply raking his fingers through his own hair, “I guess I just – just wanted to say thank you”, he cleared his voice before he added, “I mean, I obviously know you didn’t do it for me or-“

“I did it for everyone”, Loki cut him off, “I did it for myself”, he added in a whisper.

“I’m sorry but I don’t-“

“I wasn’t acting as myself when I lead the invasion on this world”, Loki closed his eyes again, as he spoke.

He had never actually told this to anyone; he was aware that Heimdall knew and had told his brother, possibly the king as well while he’d been imprisoned in the dungeons beneath the palace. Not that that had changed anything. He asked himself why he was telling this man, a mortal whom he had met once and knew close to nothing about, why he was telling him now and tried to stop himself from going on but the words were pouring out as if they had a life on their own and no inclination of staying hidden away for a heartbeat longer;

“He, Thanos, controlled my every move ever since the Chitauri had taken me prisoner after my fall and”, he gritted his teeth at the memory, “forced me into compliance. As long as that sceptre was near me, he had near full control over my body. I tried to fight against him, but the only thing I ever managed was hiding hints within the things he made me say”

“Like your speech in Germany”, Tony said after a moment of silence. He had entertained that theory during the aftermath of the attack but there had never been definite proof and eventually, he let it go, figuring it didn’t really matter either way and heaven knows there had been enough on his mind already. Well, he had _tried_ to let it go. He had never really gotten the hang of that, “or what you told Natasha”

“For example,” Loki sighed quietly, “it doesn’t matter now, he’s gone and that’s all that counts”

“Will _you_ be alright?”, Tony felt stupid for even asking and the feeling increased when the god looked up to him in surprise. _Green eyes_, not the stark, unnatural blue they had been the last time.

_That was that then_, Tony figured.

“Will_ I_ be alright?”, the god asked incredulously.

“I mean… yeah?”, Tony muttered.

“In a day or two I should be as good as new,”, Loki answered. It was true; physically there was nothing wrong with him, his falling unconscious had been his body’s way of trying to give his mind a chance to deal with what had happened, what he had made happen - Thanos’ attack and the (albeit) short fight and its end.

For a moment, the thought that his hands were still covered in blood crossed his mind and he felt sick. He made himself look down and only found crisp, white linen and his own hands, pale and slender but clean. Someone – probably one of their mother’s former handmaidens - had bathed his body and changed his sullied armour into a plain grey tunica and leggings. His hair had been loosely tight back. He still felt sullied, unclean, like a monster, cruel and cold. How else could he have killed all of them without pausing for breath, for thought?

He closed his eyes, shoving that thought away with all his might. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on nothing than the rise and fall of his own chest and finally, his breathing grew slightly easier. When he opened his eyes, his gaze landed right on the man in front of him and at that sight, the sight of someone looking openly at him without calculation, bitterness or disgust but mere honest curiosity and something that bordered on fascination, he did something that caught even himself by surprise; he showed the engineer a smile, weak and soft and open and honest and Tony felt his heart skip a beat.

Tony coughed quietly but finally managed; “You wanna stay here until then?”

He bit his tongue in order not to blurt out anything else, although, what could he possibly add that could sound any more insane?

He should call his psychiatrist. Hell, he should probably buy himself a straitjacket and throw himself into the nearest hole. Instead he waited for the god’s answer, poised as a rabbit staring into the eyes of a much larger predator.

“Gladly”, Loki sighed after a moment, holding his gaze.

Tony hated himself for the tension he felt seep form his body at the god’s answer.

“Glad to hear it”

Loki couldn’t quite fathom what he had just said, nor what he received as an answer.

“You hungry?”, Tony continued after a moment of silence.

Another smile, quicker and slipping more easily onto the god’s lips and Tony couldn’t believe how much he wanted to not notice how beautiful Loki looked whilst smiling, even while he was so exhausted and weak that he couldn’t sit up on his own.

“Famished”

Loki watched Tony Stark as he turned to address the ceiling above;

“Friday? We need some sustenance in here; get the man whatever he wants”, he turned back to Loki; “What do you wanna start with?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you've enjoyed it
> 
> Usually, I post weekly but apparently, this ff, which was almost finished, decided it needed to be longer after I posted the first chapter, so I'm afraid, I can't gurantee regular updates.
> 
> Thank you so very much for your lovely comments on the first chapter by the way; reading that I accomplished my objectives of proposing a solution of "Infinity War" before it even started felt fantastic and made me immensely happy! <3


	3. Almost Anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A week later, Loki was fully recovered, just like he’d said.

A week later, Loki was fully recovered, just like he’d said. The only sign that he had been unwell was the guarded look that had not yet left his eyes and the headaches he got when he spent longer periods of time intensely focusing on a task.

Every day, Tony checked in on him in the late hours of the morning and they usually spent the rest of the day together, talking or sitting in comfortable silence as Tony worked on projects and Loki napped or read. He had not felt so safe in anyone’s company in ages and it scared the god beyond belief. Especially since the day he ought to depart drew nearer. Also the amount of time they’d known each other was laughable, even by human standards and his incomprehension of the fact that the first person he’d ever truly “clocked with” had to be a mortal man, who would have fought him in different circumstances nevertheless, and his dreading of leaving said mortal man ended up balancing each other.

Thor came over for tea on Tuesday and told them about the plans that had been made; A planet had been found where the aesir could settle down and their journey there had been scheduled for the end of the week. Loki was to accompany them.

“Will you be strong enough to travel by then?”, Thor asked him, leaning back in his armchair and stretching out his legs.

He would give almost anything to just lay back and close his eyes these days. Almost. Sometimes when he did lay down at the end of the day, he did not dare sleep in fear of waking up to a reality where the whole of Asgard had fallen and his brother with them. Other times he was lucky enough to directly pass out after he’d fallen into bed in the early hours of the morning.

Everything was starting to get too much and from time to time the urge to just drop everything and run away from everything, all responsibilities – that or just sink down in a dark corner with the biggest bottle of Asgardian mead he could find – grew almost unbearably big. The fact that Thor knew that he would never actually do either – could never actually do it, didn’t help. Heimdall regularly offered his guidance and help, but both of them knew of the importance of the king making his own decisions in a time of crisis. Informed decisions but they had to be his own nevertheless – he could and would not lay this burden on Heimdall’s door.

He prayed that things would get easier once the had reached their final destination and got on with rebuilding their home, but he was not sure, how long he could keep everything together under the current circumstances. What he needed was support, someone to share these burdens with – someone who ruled by his side. Maybe it was time, Asgard’s government-style changed, as well as its location.

This was not how it was supposed to be, Thor sometimes caught himself thinking; they were alright, his brother and most of his people had survived and they would have a fresh start – he should be happy, he should be positively skipping. Things used to be so much easier. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head for a moment, doing his best not to yawn.

At least Loki was fine now – and they actually got along. Every time Thor visited him and Stark, they talked, they even hugged and the coolness that had stood between them seemed to have thawed, just like the ice Thor had been enclosed in when his brother had used the casket of eternal winter against Thanos.

Now Loki’s eyes flicked towards Tony before he looked back at his brother and calmly told him, “Certainly”, he cleared his throat, stirring the contents of his teacup with the tiniest spoon and tapping the rim of it before he asked, “When should I be ready?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't a proper chapter, more like an intermission but I doubted, it would ever become more than that and like this, you get a tiny little update that progresses the story. 
> 
> Maybe some of you had a bad day or week and this gives you five minutes of frost-iron-fluff and the reassurance, that, as this story goes on, things slowly get better for the people involved. 
> 
> Anyway; as always, thank you so much for reading and for your lovely comments, reading them makes me so, so happy and I get super motivated to write more and pour as much fluff and happiness into these chapters as I can.
> 
> (By the way, the next proper update shouldn't take as long as the last one)
> 
> Lots of love <3


	4. "Can I say that without you putting me through the next window?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Would not have taken you for the nostalgic kind”, Anthony Stark had slipped into the room a handful of moments ago and was now leaning up against the doorframe, one leg crossed in front of the other, “Although – a couple of weeks are no more than the blink of an eye for you, are they?”
> 
> “That depends entirely on the kind of week I’ve been having”, Loki said with something that almost was a laugh in his voice.
> 
> “And last week for example?”

Sunlight streamed in through the ceiling-high windows, painting bright white rectangles on the floor and carpet. Loki’s left foot stood in one, his right in another patch of light, warm beneath the beam, as he gazed out onto the sea and untamed waves. He almost fancied he could feel the breeze on his face and hands. The rest of his body was hidden away beneath his Asgardian leathers stretching from his wrists to his neck and down to the tight, high black boots on his feet, that almost came up to his knees.

It felt strange after almost two weeks of lounging in soft pants and tunica (sometimes even shirts Tony had lend him and which may or may not had made their way into the bag that sat at the foot of the bed Loki had been sleeping in for the past weeks and had just made up for the last time), barefoot and curled up on sofas or beds.

He had not left Tony Stark’s villa, unless you counted the balcony that stretched out in front of the windows of the room, he’d stayed in, had not quite dared to. Less because he didn’t know whether he was allowed to leave than because he felt not ready to take on a world outside of these rooms. Truth be told, he still felt not ready. Instead, he had wandered through the enormous mansion, at first only at Tony’s side but eventually he’d started roaming through the floors on his own – which usually ended with him bumping into the engineer at some point anyway, especially once night had fallen and both of them had trouble falling asleep.

“Would not have taken you for the nostalgic kind”, Anthony Stark had slipped into the room a handful of moments ago and was now leaning up against the doorframe, one leg crossed in front of the other, “Although – a couple of weeks are no more than the blink of an eye for you, are they?”

“That depends entirely on the kind of week I’ve been having”, Loki said with something that almost was a laugh in his voice.

“And last week for example?”

“Last week”, Loki finally turned to face him, the sun now warm against his back and he sighed quietly, the words slow on his lips, “ah, last week felt like half a century”

“Am I that boring?”, Tony asked with a proper laugh, his eyes bright and possibly sparkling. Loki did his best not to notice.

“On the contrary”, the god said in a soft voice, still doing his best not to look straight at Tony’s eyes, “I greatly enjoyed your company”

“_You greatly enjoyed my company_”, Tony now laughed out loud, pushing himself off the doorframe and stepped up to the god in front of the windows, “Shit, why don’t you calligraphy me that onto canvas next time”

“I’m sorry”, Loki relented and finally allowed himself to smile, looking down through his lashes and not backing away when Tony bumped their shoulders together for a second, “I’m not quite used to being myself again, never mind talking as myself”

Thanos had made sure of that when he’d broken him down and taken everything from him. The years Loki had spent governing Asgard whilst pretending to be Odin and the weeks afterwards on Sakaar, where he’d mostly been focused on being whatever the Grandmaster wanted him to be at every moment, had not helped with that particular issue either.

“I liked having you here too”, Tony told the god after a pause, “really did”

During the last days he had learned that Loki did not require, or sometimes even want a reaction to statements like these. Making these offhand comments probably still did more good for the god than bottling up everything he’d gone through during the last years, Tony figured but he still had the urge to sit Loki down, bundle him up in blanket and tell him to just spit everything out. He did not do that. The thought was ridiculous, and it got harder and harder to supress.

There was a vulnerable air about the god, Tony had noticed, that sometimes shone through when Loki either thought himself unobserved or momentarily forgot the façade he had built for himself and, for a moment, he became so fragile-looking, a gust of wind seemed capable of shattering him. Once again, Tony forced himself not to notice, or rather to not see what was right in front of him.

He felt stupid and guilty at the same time, but he could probably deal with that for a couple of hours more until Loki would leave with his brother and the rest of the aesir. Probably to never be seen on Midgard again and that thought, _that thought_ left a bitter taste in Tony’s mouth and a feeling like he’d been punched in the stomach.

A couple of hours.

But enough work had piled up during the days he’d spent with Loki that ignoring these feelings would be no problem. That had worked after Steve and the others had left and the team had broken apart, that and spending time with and mentoring Peter. At least that was something he could look forward to; they had not seen each other since the Aesir had landed and the kid had already asked when he could come over again. Tony was willing to bet his newest suit that Peter would still be all giddy about having had the chance to meet Thor and Heimdall and even Valkyrie, he had thought the kid would pass out right there and then.

He should probably also finally go catch up with Bruce. He _had_ missed him while he’d been gone and soon there would be time. Soon._ God, he would miss Loki, he did not want him to go and never see him again, he- _

“Thank you”, the god said softly, sweetly - as strange as that word seemed when used to describe the god of mischief, “that is very kind of you”

“Now don’t get sentimental on me”, the words had no sting to them as he grinned up at Loki had the god’s face grow hot, but he willed himself not to flush.

“I’ll do my best”

“You wanna get something to drink before Thor comes?”

“Will this finally be the day you will have tea with me?”

“Nah, I leave that to you, your highness”, Tony led the god towards the lounge and kitchen and put on the kettle he’d gotten for Loki, “I think I’ll keep these though”, he took the little glass-container of tea leaves out of Loki’s after the god had poured a stream of boiling water into a high cup, “maybe you’ll wanna come by again sometime”

He clambered onto one of the barstools at the breakfast counter and Loki followed his example, well he did not so much climb onto one as simply sit back, lifting the steaming cup up to his face for a moment and inhaling the rich scent before he set it down again.

“That would be lovely”, he told Tony with a soft sigh, gazing out of the kitchen windows with an unreadable expression.

“Nervous?”, Tony asked, feeling only a little bit stupid.

“Truthfully?”

“Humour me” 

“Yes”, Loki admitted, “but that’s not all; I don’t know how I could ever find a place among them after… everything. I’m afraid too much has happened, I have lied and done too much and there’s no going back from some of those things”

“You saved everyone, twice”

“That’s greatly oversimplifying it”, Loki snorted, “I’m no knight in shining armour, Anthony, I’m not the one to save anyone”

“Yeah, tell that to everyone who isn’t dead because of you”

“Oversimplifying”, the god repeated but he did it with a smile, “not everyone turns out a hero, you know”

“_Oh, really_?”, Tony propped his elbow against the countertop and rested his chin against the palm of his hand, “Next you’ll tell me the earth’s round”

“Don’t be crude”, Loki whispered, “you’re better than that”

“Am I?”

“From what I have gathered for myself”

“You’re actually really sweet, can I say that without you putting me through the next window?”

“No”, Loki’s smiled widened and this time he blushed.

“Should I take it back?”, now it was a challenge and Tony did not let himself think for a moment about what he was doing here.

“That would be cowardice”

“And?”

“You are a lot of things, Anthony Stark, but no coward. That much is obvious”, even as the words passed his lips, Loki knew that they were too close to heart, his own and Stark’s.

“You don’t have to leave with them”, Tony told him after a short pause, sucking in a breath, “you could stay here”

“And where would I go on this planet? I doubt I would be welcome anywhere after New York”

“For god’s sake, do I have to spell it out for you?”, Tony bit down on his tongue a moment too late and raked a hand through his hair, making it stick out on end, and tried to have the second half not come out quite as harsh, “you could stay _here_, right here with me”

“Why would you want that?”, the god asked in a whisper, hands gripping tight on either side of his mug and not looking up, “Pity? A wrapped sense of responsibility? Because neither does apply. You don’t owe me; you won’t make amends through me”

“Do I have to get something out of it?”, Tony asked without heat, “Maybe I just want someone around who willingly talks to me and doesn’t turn on me as soon as I don’t meet their expectations”

“So it’s loneliness?”

Now that was blunt.

Tony glared at him, face hot and mouth dry _and this was the exact conversation he had not wanted to have_.

“And if it is?”, he asked, settling for defiance rather than an attempt of fighting the accusation. Accusation? No, a question, a simple, honest question and Tony knew that Loki would not ridicule him no matter what he answered. If he answered.

“Then I would tell you that I’m the last person to heal that ache”

_Oh. _

_What could he say? What could he answer? There had to be something he should say- what was it? Why did he say that? Why would he- _

“I can’t give you anything in return though – everything I ever owned I either lost or watched it burn alongside my home. I want to be neither your burden nor your dependant”

“You don’t owe me anything, never will”

“Are you sure?”

“I promise”

“Okay then”, their eyes finally met, and Loki held his gaze.

“Okay then”, Tony got out. He allowed himself to take a deep breath, then he grinned up at the god; “Will you tell your brother or I?”

“What about we do it together?”

“Fine”, Loki’s eyes were bright and his whole face lit up, Tony had never seen anything half as beautiful, “this is madness, you know? If either of us had an ounce of sense, we would not even talk about this”

“Yeah, but where would the fun in that be?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A propter chapter for a chance, I hope you've enjoyed it, thank you so much for reading and comments would be lovely as always <3


	5. "Again"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you looking at?”, the god asked, grinning behind his fingers.
> 
> “I didn’t know you could laugh like that”, and god, how badly Tony wanted to make him do it again.
> 
> “It’s been rather a long time since the last time I had any cause to”, Loki slowly dropped his hand to hang at his side, still grinning, “but what can I say? It seems you bring it out in me, whatever that says about either of us”
> 
> “Only good stuff, I’m sure”

The sun set bright red on the horizon, tinting the sky pink and orange. Even Loki’s skin looked rosy in front of the sunset and Tony found it harder and harder to tear his gaze away from him with every second that passed. He shoved both hands into the pockets of his jeans as he watched the god’s profile rather than the gigantic spacecraft as it took off and lifted higher, higher into the evening sky and towards the clouds and stars.

“There they go”, Loki whispered, lowering his hand – he had actually waved off the ship that carried his brother and the rest of the aesir off and seriously, it got harder and harder for Tony to supress the urge to just pull him close and kiss him. Who would have expected that Loki would turn out to be so cute?

This was really getting ludicrous; why, of all people, did it have to be the god of mischief he had to fall for? And fall so quickly and utterly too - they had not even known each other for a whole month; he did not count their interactions during the attack on New York since he had not actually interacted with _Loki_ back then and the difference was stark; where the “Loki” that had strutted and prowled his way through the mess of the New-York-incident was menacing, cold and arguably mad, the god, the man, in front of Tony was perhaps broken but soft-spoken and sweet, sharp as a whip and bitter on occasion but kind and brilliant.

He was the most beautiful thing Tony had ever seen and it was no question that he would do his best to mend the broken parts. _As if that were his business_. He really had to watch what he said to and did around the god if he didn’t want to put himself into a rather awkward position or, heaven forbid, make it seem as if he was trying to pressure Loki into something. Or rather, as if he was trying too hard to get with a literal god. Like that would ever happen – god, what had he gotten himself into?

“There they go”, Tony echoed, gaze still fixed upon the god’s face. He could not help himself.

A cool wind swept the roof terrace they stood on, arms resting on the railing at its edge, hair tousled by the breeze. It carried the smell of the sea, the taste of its salt up to them and Tony did his best not to shiver.

“We should go back inside”, Loki said softly when he noticed anyway, touching the tips of his fingers to the back of Tony’s hand for a heartbeat, “you’re freezing”

“It’s nothing, I always got cold hands”, Tony shrugged, touching his own thumb to the area Loki’s fingers had brushed against as inconspicuously as he could, “aren’t you getting tired of being inside all the time?”

“Well, your house is rather lovely”, Loki shrugged back, eyes twinkling, “as is the company but yes, I would like to actually go outside at some point”

“We could go to the beach tomorrow if you want to”, Tony offered, doing his best to wipe the stupid grin off his face.

“I’d love to”, Loki said carefully, “but-“

“Is there a rule for quasi-royalty to not show off their swim shorts to simple peasants?”

“You’re the most ridiculous person I’ve ever met, are you aware of that?”

“I’m doing my best, you know”, Tony quirked an eyebrow and Loki slapped his hand across his own mouth to smother the chuckle that pushed through his teeth.

“What are you looking at?”, the god asked, grinning behind his fingers.

“I didn’t know you could laugh like that”, and god, how badly Tony wanted to make him do it again.

“It’s been rather a long time since the last time I had any cause to”, Loki slowly dropped his hand to hang at his side, still grinning, “but what can I say? It seems you bring it out in me, whatever that says about either of us”

“Only good stuff, I’m sure”, Tony finally allowed himself to grin back, “Come back inside then, I still got stuff for making hot chocolate lying around somewhere in case Peter comes by – you like chocolate, right?”

“It’s been decades since the last time I had some”, Loki’s eyes positively lit up and he followed Tony back towards the elevator and the kitchen afterward.

“What I actually wanted to say back there”, Loki started after they’d relocated to the living room and onto the couch there, somehow managing to stir a sixteenth marshmallow into his cup, “or rather ask, was whether you were sure you had the time to spend another day entertaining me, if there wasn’t anything you needed to get back to”

“You know”, Tony told him, “I haven’t taken a real holiday since I came back from Afghanistan, and I spent the last couple of years doing nothing but work; I think the world can deal with me doing something else for a couple of weeks”

“I just thought…”, Loki trailed off with a shrug and took a sip from his chocolate, “I didn’t want to take up all your time”

“I’ll tell you should that become an issue”, Tony promised, tugging one foot beneath his other leg and slumping back against the couch as he watched Loki cradle the mug between both hands, “but right now I’d much rather spent my time with you than throw myself into another stupid project. I think, I’d reached a point where I just couldn’t do that anymore at some point anyway”

“Thank you”

“And stop thanking me, alright?”, Tony told him with a wry grin.

“I-“

“And don’t tell me you’re sorry either”

“I won’t then”, Loki raised an eyebrow, shifting to settle a little more comfortably against the cushions.

“Good”, Tony mirrored the expression before he reached out and rested his hand on the god’s shoulder for a second, “stop worrying for a second, alright?”

“I’ll try”, Loki’s other eyebrow joined the first, but his expression softened when he dropped his gaze to Tony’s hand. He blinked slowly, making no attempt to pull away and Tony let his hand stay where it was.

“Is that alright?”, Tony asked in a low voice and immediately asked himself why he had to do it – he could have just taken the memory of the feeling of Loki’s shirt and the sharp bones of his shoulder and collarbone where his own fingers had pressed down. That way, he may even had had the chance to occasionally touch him again. That chance was gone, once the god told him to stop it – as it _should_ be, Tony reminded himself but still felt the tang of regret behind his teeth as he waited for Loki’s answer.

“I actually appreciate it – I hope you can’t imagine what it’s like to never be touched”, he said quietly before a dry smile lifted up the corner of his mouth, “except by Thor – which is nice, don’t get me wrong but…”

“It’s kinda awkward from what you’ve told me?”

“For one thing, yes”

“For another?”

“It’s catching up; it’s him saying sorry for what happened between us and the way we treated each other growing up - I’d much rather have someone touch me for the sake of being close to me than for apologizing with every contact, especially since it’s not actually his fault”

“If you wanna be hugged, all you gotta do is ask”, Tony squeezed his eyes shut and bit down on his lower lip the second the last word had left his lips.

He _really_ had to stop talking before he had finished thinking what he was about to say through. Maybe he should stop talking around Loki altogether.

When he forced his eyes open again, Loki was still blinking at him, face blank.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean- I have a stupid fat mouth sometimes”

“Is that a Midgardian euphemism for lying?”, Loki furrowed his brows.

“No, I just – I just tend to start rambling without thinking first sometimes and that tends to come out wrong”

“I actually think it’s rather endearing, I’m just not used to that”

“Oh”

“And if _you_ don’t mind…”, Loki gazed down for a moment, closed his eyes and inhaled quietly before he went on, “_I_ would not mind…”

“…being hugged?”

“Yes”, Loki met his eyes again and his own basically spelled out ‘thank you’

“By me?”

“I thought that much was obvious”, Loki raised an eyebrow, “I did not mean to ask you for paying someone to do it”

“I don’t think anyone would insist on being paid to cuddle you”

“I thought we were talking about _a hug_”, Loki’s brows almost vanished into his hairline, but he was grinning again.

“A hug from me”

“Yes”

“Right now?”

“As I said, I would not mind”

“Yeah, I got that”, Tony grinned back, “do you want to come here?”, he sat up straighter, straightening out his legs as well and turned to face Loki straight ahead, opening his arms a little.

“Yes”, Loki swallowed before he edged closer to the other and slowly leaned into the suggested embrace once he was close enough, “I would like that very much”

His whole body was as stiff as a board as Tony carefully slung both arms around him.

“Is this alright?”

“Very”, Loki whispered against his shoulder, “how long-“

“As long as you want”

“_Thank you_”

This time, Tony did not reprimand the god for his thanks but very carefully tightened his hold around him, smoothing one hand up and down his back.

“You obviously don’t have to”, Tony said after several minutes, still carefully stroking his back, “but you can relax a little, I won’t let go until you want me to”

“I’ll try”, Loki whispered in the softest tone of voice, allowing his eyes to slip shut.

Tony smiled quietly; “Can I try something as well?”

“I guess”

“It’s nothing bad, I promise, if you don’t like it just say so and I’ll stop”

“Go ahead then”, Loki said in a soft voice. He didn’t actually say ‘I trust you’ out loud because even the thought of that felt tacky and made his skin crawl unpleasantly.

“I got you”, Tony promised as he carefully pulled the god closer and angled his upper body, so his head came to rest against his shoulder.

“I kind of got that – oh”, Loki made a soft sound when Tony did so and turned his head so he could rest it against the engineer’s collarbone.

“Okay?”

“Yes”, he slowly blinked against Tony’s shirt and breathed in his cologne, “yes, it is”

“This is nice, you know”, Tony eventually told the god, holding him fast and Loki hummed in agreement.

Loki freed a hand from between them and reached to place it on Tony’s chest, his fingers hovering above it; “May I?”, he asked, and Tony laughed quietly.

“’course”

After that, they sat in silence for some time, Loki carefully resting his hand against Tony’s shoulder and brushing the tips of his fingers against his shirt while Tony kept holding him, their knees pressing together as they slowly breathed.

“Isn’t your back killing you like that?”, Tony eventually asked, smile in his voice.

“Only very slightly”

“You wanna change that?”

“Not particularly”, Loki half-purred, eyes almost completely shut.

“Come on now”, Tony muttered, “or just pull up your knees, I can feel the muscles in your back twitch”

Loki grumbled into Tony’s shirt but did as he’d said, pulling his legs up underneath him.

“That’s better, isn’t it?”

“Maybe”, Loki shifted, pushing closer. The top of his head brushed against Tony’s chin. His hair was incredibly soft.

“Told you so”

“Yeah, yeah”

Tony laughed, resting his chin against the crown of the god’s head. He forbade himself to think about what he was doing and how much, o god, how much he hoped that this would not be a one-time-thing. With the way Loki was slowly relaxing against him, pressing closer even, he allowed himself to think it might not be.

“May I note something?”, Loki asked after some time.

“course”

“This”, Loki made a vague gesture, which he was only half-convinced Tony could see, “doesn’t strictly fall under the umbrella of ‘hugging’, does it?”

“That is both an incredibly sweet and disturbing way to phrase that question”

“The combination of ‘hugging’ and ‘umbrella’?”, Loki tipped back his head in an attempt to catch the other’s gaze.

“Yeah”, Tony grimaced before he grinned down at him, “sounds like an umbrella made of cut-off arms, doesn’t it?”

“A little”, Loki admitted, quietly snorting, “I did not mean for it to sound like that”

“I would have almost expected that”

“…can we go back to my question?”

“Sorry”, Tony made a show of wiping the grin off his face and replace it with a sombre expression, “Go on”

Loki narrowed his eyes up at him;

“You’re a moron”

“Yeah, but we already knew that”, Tony batted his lashes but finally relented with a quiet sigh, shaking his head, “I think we’re halfway to ‘cuddling’ actually”

“Do you mind that?”

“Nope”

“Really?”

“Course not. Do you?”

“I don’t know why, but I don’t. I feel strangely comfortable in your company”

“As do I”

“Oh”, Loki whispered softly, biting down on his bottom lip, “I would not have expected to be in a situation like this again”

“Being cuddled or feeling comfortable in someone’s presence?”

“Both”

“And you mean like ‘ever again’, I take it?”

“I’m afraid so”

“Well, I’ve always loved disproving a hypothesises”

Loki opened his mouth to respond but closed it again without making a sound, eyes bright and wide open.

“Anthony Stark?”, he asked softly, his lips barely moving.

“I told you not to call me that but yes?”

“It seems I have grown rather fond of you”

“…thanks?”

“Perhaps … fonder that I’d be of a friend? Although I don’t know your opinion on ranking friendly and romantic relationships of course”

Tony listened with a forcefully neutral expression. Then he blinked, and blinked again, his mind going blank for a second.

“So, you’re saying, you might be interested in me?”

“You can scratch the ‘might’, I’m afraid”

“You’re really thrilled about this, aren’t you”

“No offense, but it is ridiculous – we have known each other how long now?”

“Two weeks, four and a half days”, Tony answered (a question which he knew had been rhetorical) without thinking.

“Three weeks if you count the time, I was unconscious”, the god nodded.

“Talking to someone who’s asleep isn’t really the same thing as getting to know them”

“It isn’t”, Loki agreed in a soft tone of voice, “I’m sorry, this is no position to have this conversation in”, he sighed but made no attempt to untangle himself from Tony, “and even having it puts you in an awkward spot, I’m afraid”

“It really doesn’t”, Tony murmured, doing his best not to look away although he could feel his face heating up, “put me in an awkward spot, I mean, and I don’t mind the …position either”

“And I’m not ‘not thrilled’”, Loki cleared his throat, “it’s just been so long since I’ve actually been interested in someone, romantically or platonically, and being it now, after everything, just feels …weird”

“I know what you mean”, Tony sighed, “not on that scale of course but I thought, after Pepper and with the team splitting up, I’d probably end up alone once Peter goes of to college and leaves his ‘friendly neighbourhood spiderman’ behind him”

“The easy thing would be to just ignore all of that and-”, Loki started pointing out.

“Loki”, Tony cut him off and gently pushed the god back by his chest and shoulders and Loki complied, straightening his back and holding the engineer’s gaze, “may I kiss you?”

“Yes, please”

Loki’s eyes fluttered close as Tony cupped his face between the palms of his hands and tilted back his head, his own hands made their way up to rest against Tony’s chest.

Truth be told, he would not have imagined his and Tony’s first kiss – if he had had imagined it that is– to be so light and gentle, their lips barely touching. His fingers fluttered against Tony’s chest just before he and the engineer broke apart and they were up in the air and cradling Tony’s face to pull him forward again and properly kiss him a moment later, their noses brushing and breath catching in the back of their throats as their kissed again, longer this time.

Loki tasted of the over-sweet hot chocolate they’d been drinking and beneath that of ice and wind, like a forest in the middle of winter if that made sense. Every inch of his skin Tony touched felt soft and cool, irresistible after the first discovery and before long, his fingers where tangled in the god’s long, ink black curls, and tugging him closer and closer still, Loki’s fingers tight on his shoulders.

“That works for me”, Tony finally whispered against his lips, breath heavy and eyes bright as they finally pulled apart, foreheads tipped forward and almost touching, noses still brushing.

“Definitely”, Loki whispered with pink lips, green eyes so dark the pupils almost got lost within.

“Do you have any, any idea how gorgeous you are?”

Loki actually blushed at that, casting down his eyes, bright smile on his lips. He couldn’t help the laugh that pushed through when Tony slung one arm around his hip, the other around his waist and lifted him into his lap, the god’s knees coming to a rest on either side of his hips and his arms wrapping around Tony’s neck almost automatically while Tony hugged him close, pressing his face into the hollow beneath Loki’s chin and neck. The god started running his fingers through his hair, the tips of his nails gently brushing against Tony’s scalp from his hairline to the nape of his neck. The tips of his fingers came across a spot of thinning hair on the back of the engineer’s head.

For several minutes, their heavy breathing was the only sound in the semi-darkness of Tony Stark’s lounge. Then, Loki carefully sat back towards Tony’s knees and gently lifted Tony’s head up to look into his eyes again.

“I am so, so glad I got to meet you”, he whispered against Tony’s lips, pressing his own against the corner of his mouth, “again”, he added with a soft smile.

“Same here”, Tony whispered back, his fingers gently digging into the god’s hips and the small of his back. He looked up into Loki’s face and actually felt his mouth grow dry at the sight, “would not have missed it for the world”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so very much for reading - as I said before your comments were wonderful and extremely motivating; truth be told, I'm not sure whether this would have ended up the way it did if you had not told me, that you actually enjoyed reading it <3
> 
> This is actually the final chapter of this ff - I might add a couple of bonus scenes depending on how fast I'll get them down. Wouls you be interested in that?
> 
> Once again thank you so very much for reading this.
> 
> And hey, at least we can all pretend that this is what happened and move on happily,
> 
> Lots of love.


	6. Bonus Chapter: “Are you sure, you want to take the risk?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You think too much”
> 
> “And you don’t?”, one elegant black eyebrow quirked high on the god’s forehead.
> 
> “Never said that”

“Are you sure, I’m not too heavy?”, Loki eventually whispered, arms looped around Tony’s neck, their foreheads and chests pressed together, lips almost touching again. Lips which looked a lot puffier than an hour ago.

“You weigh about ten pounds”, Tony snorted, reaching up to brush Loki’s hair back and touch his jowl afterward.

“Hardly”, the god leaned into the touch, his eyes slipping shut and his cool breath flowing against Tony’s lips as he scoffed, “but as long as you don’t plan on hauling me at someone to knock them out, I suppose it doesn’t really matter”

“Excuse me- what?”

“Never mind”, Loki waved him off, turning away from Tony for a moment as his mouth opened up in a huge yawn.

“Tired?”

“A little”, Loki leaned his forehead against Tony’s temple, brushing his lips against his jaw, “I’m sorry”

“You wanna go to bed?”, Tony asked, then heard how it sounded, and made to correct himself, “your bed, I mean- or mine if you want-”

“What would you prefer?”

“You know, my bed is insanely comfortable, even I can sleep there from time to time”

“Okay”, Loki said softy, opened his mouth again but closed it without saying something, pressing his lips a little more tightly together than was strictly necessary.

“I’m dead on my feet too”, Tony cupped the god’s face with one palm and gently turned it towards him, stroking his thumb along the god’s cheekbone, “and I’d never try and pressure you into-“

“I know”, Loki cut him off, looking surprised at himself.

“Are you okay?”, Tony asked when Loki sat up a little straighter, looking utterly shell shocked as he slowly blinked, barely breathing as he starred straight past Tony, his body one taut line.

“I _never_ trust anyone that easily, I barely trust anyone at all – this is bad”, he muttered the last part to himself voice so low, Tony could barely make it out. How could he have failed to notice this before?

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, not at all, it’s just…”

“…scary to not be on the safe side?”

“It’s idiotic to run around like a lovesick teenager and stop using one’s brain – which is exactly what I’ve been doing since I met you”

“Thanks”

“That’s- that’s not what I meant, Anthony”

“I know”, Tony assured him, “I take it as a compliment actually, I mean, I know how hard it is to… just shut off your brain and, you know, let go”

“But it _wasn’t_ hard this time, in fact, I didn’t even notice what I was doing up until now”, Loki looked at him with huge, green eyes, suddenly looking very lost, “or rather what I wasn’t doing”

“Do you want me to back off? Put this on pause for now?”, Tony asked softly, “I’m not offended or anything, I really don’t wanna force you into something”

“…no, I don’t”, Loki whispered, “and I don’t want you to back off, I don’t want to lose this, I really, really like you – I don’t know why and I don’t know what’s gotten into me to act and feel like this but since I do and you…”, the god trailed off.

“… feel the same way”, Tony finished with a gentle smile, “exactly the same way actually; I couldn’t have described it any better”

“So that might be a sign that we should not ignore this?”

“But take it slow and actually talk about things as they come up?”

“Yes?”

“Okay then”, Tony said softly, touching his thumb to the god’s chin.

“Okay then”, Loki showed the engineer a smile, reaching up to cover Tony’s hand with his own, tug it upwards and press his lips against its back, smile pressing into his skin.

“You still wanna come sleep with- in my room?”,

“I’d love to”

“Come on then”, Tony slipped his hands down to Loki’s waist and gently pushed against him, “I’ll be right behind you”

“I’ll just get my sleep clothes before-“, the god got to his feet.

“You can borrow from me”, Tony cut him off with a grin, slinging one arm around the god’s hips and pulling him close as they set off towards his bedroom, “not that I expect to get them back any time soon – don’t think I didn’t notice that two of my favourite shirts made their way into your room and never back”

“Does it help that I meant to take them as keepsakes?”, Loki asked with a quiet smile.

“That is actually pretty sweet”, Tony admitted, leading the god through the door and pushing it shut behind them, “I still want them back”

Loki made a noncommittal sound but followed the engineer towards a dresser.

“_I want this one back_”, he pressed a pair of washed-out sweatpants and an ACDC-shirt into his hands.

“I won’t make any promises”, Loki told him sweetly, “Are you sure, you want to take the risk?”

“Fine”, Tony squinted up at the god, “at least they’ll smell of you, should I ever get them back”

Loki rolled his eyes but bit his lip and barely managed to hide his smile before he turned his back to Tony to slip out of his and into the new clothes. Tony, after a moment, did the same.

“_Should_”, the god told him, batting his lashes and Tony sighed.

“Get on with it then”, he gently nudged Loki towards the bed, “do you want to have the shades closed?”, he asked, as he turned on the ceiling lights, once the god had sat down on the mattress cross-legged, “could you turn on the lamp on your nightstand?”

“I don’t mind the stars”, Loki did as he was told and extended his hands towards the engineer, linking their fingers once Tony was close enough and pulled him onto the bed next to him.

“There’s going to be a meteor shower next week, you know”, Tony told the god, once he’d settled down beside him and allowed Loki to ease his upper body down against the mattress and his head into his lap, “we could watch it from the roof if you want to”, while he’d been talking, the god had started running his fingers through his hair again and Tony sighed contentedly, “this is nice”

“That sounds fantastic”, Loki murmured, “I’ve seen precious little of this world’s night skies up until now”

“They’re pretty different from what you’re used to, aren’t they?”

“Mhm”, Loki hummed, still smoothing back the unruly brown strands, “I could show you the sight I used to have from my old rooms at some point it you want to. That’s probably easier than trying to describe it”

“Like an illusion?”

“I could do that”, Loki nodded, twirling one curl around his fingers, “I could also show it to you directly”

“Like touch your forefingers to my temples, squeeze your eyes shut, put that image in my mind?”

“Exactly”, Loki agreed, smiling softly when Tony caught the god’s hand, lacing their fingers, “are there many Midgardian movies depicting that kind of memory-sharing?”

“Surprisingly many”, Tony squeezed Loki’s hand in his, “we can watch some tomorrow if you wanna”

“I wouldn’t mind”, Loki whispered, somehow managing to shift and lay back against the pillows, closed his eyes, stretched one arm above his head and added; “as long as we don’t have to ever leave this bed”

“No problem”, Tony shuffled so he could rest his head against the god’s chest instead, slinging one arm around his middle, their hands still interlocked, and pressing close, “don’t mind staying here with you”

“You’re really-“

“Let me guess; ridiculous?”

“I wanted to say sweet”, Loki somehow managed to bend his neck far enough to brush a kiss against the top of Tony’s head.

“’m not sweet”, Tony grumbled into the god’s shirt.

“Of course not”, Loki murmured into his hair, wriggling against the pillows.

“You alright?”, the engineer lifted up his head, placing one hand over the god’s chest and resting his chin on its back.

“…I just get uneasy when I lay on my back with something on my chest”, the god murmured softly, closing his eyes in order to not have to look into the engineer’s, “it’s nothing”

“No, no, sorry”, Tony shifted off the god and laid down next to Loki on his side. He placed his hand on the god’s side, just above the stripe of pale skin that peeked out from between the shirt he’d loaned- he had taken from the engineer - and pants, “is this better?”

“A little”, Loki’s breath had not quite returned to normal when he placed one hand on Tony’s upper arm.

“Let me see then”, Tony said, slipping an arm around Loki’s middle before he rolled onto his back and carefully pulled the god with him.

“What about now?”, he asked, one of his hands coming to rest against the god’s ribs, the other one against the side of his face, the tips of his fingers brushing against his cheek.

The god exhaled loudly, his eyes slipping shut for a moment, “Do you suppose, you could stand staying like this for some time?”

“Never”, Tony shook his head dramatically before he pressed his face against the top of Loki’s head, nuzzling into his soft hair, “all night, if you want, tomorrow too and the day after that”

“Yes please”, Loki whispered back, reaching out a hand to touch the corner of Tony’s mouth.

“Not a problem”

Tony’s smile widened when Loki blindly moved his hand, retracing the outline of his lips, the rest of his fingers curling around his jaw.

“Do you think, you could sleep like this?”

Loki hummed in agreement, turning his head and pressing is lips against his chest.

“Anthony?”, he asked after a couple of minutes in a soft voice.

“Yes?”

“I don’t mean to make everything so difficult, I really don’t”

“Shut up, Loki”

“And I’m fairly certain, that won’t get better”

“Now listen here for a moment”, Tony told him, almost managing to keep from laughing, “do you really think, you’ll be the only one in this relationship who’s going to make things difficult?”

“…I suppose not”, Loki tipped back his head to gaze up at the engineer, “does it make me a bad person if I find that reassuring?”

“If it does, I’m just as bad as you”, Tony promised, pressing a quick kiss to the god’s forehead, smoothing his hands over Loki’s waist and along his jaw.

“I think, I can live with that”, Loki whispered, and all the tension seemed to seep from his body as his eyes slipped shut.

“You think too much”

“And you don’t?”, one elegant black eyebrow quirked high on the god’s forehead.

“Never said that”

“Are _you_ comfortable like this?”

“Very”, Tony tightened his hold around the god, “and you know what?”

“Hm?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been so goddamn, out of my mind happy, okay? I’m so glad you stayed here with me, I can’t begin to tell you - and I promise you that’s the truth”

“I know”, Loki whispered, squinting up at him and carefully moving the tips of his fingers along his jowl towards his ear, “god of fire, lies and mischief, remember? I can tell when people tell the truth and when they don’t”, he added when he felt the slow movements of Tony’s hands against his skin halter for a moment.

“That’s certainly going to make things easier”, Tony grinned down at Loki, resuming the slow caress and Loki couldn’t help grinning back, snuggling into the engineer’s chest, “stop worrying for tonight, okay?”

“Okay”, Loki, burying his nose in his shirt, “I’m out of my mind happy to be here with you too, by the way”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope, you enjoyed this - I might add some more chapters, should I ever manage to write more.
> 
> (By the by, I am aware, that the chapter title may have made you nervous for what you were about to read and I hope it was worth it)
> 
> Lots of love

**Author's Note:**

> What could have happened, if Loki had been allowed to use his brain during the opening scene of Infinity War.
> 
> Thank you for reading <3


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